November 8, 2016

Our Teachers’ Training Program is working on developing a teacher manual, which will guide primary school teachers in planning their lessons. It will help teachers practice the best skills and techniques, providing the students with the best possible education.

Why do we think that developing a teacher manual is important?

Please take the time to read an excerpt from The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss:

The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day. I sat there with Sally. We sat there, we two. And I said, ‘How I wish we had something to do!

In Tanzania, 3 out of 10 students can’t read this simple poem after completing their primary school. We want to end this problem. Children should not hesitate over reading these simple words, and consequently perform below their reading potential and poorly on their examinations.

Certainly hundreds of thousands of children in Tanzania have the potential to excel. Children enrolled in primary school throughout the country still struggle with reading. Parents wonder whether to get a part-time job afford tutoring for their children.

This past decade, educators have been fighting a phonics versus whole language reading war. Phonics is one method of teaching a child to read, while whole language is another. Each side has strong advocates, yet many children still finish primary school unable to read. Meanwhile, our Teachers’ Training Program has been busy researching various resources to identify the missing puzzle piece of how to teach children to read.

Here’s some good news: we are working to publish a teachers manual on how to teach students to read, write, and calculate. This will make a profound difference to children in many schools, as teachers will learn useful information found in our manual. Let’s begin helping Tanzanian children improve their reading, writing and calculating!